Industry Guides
Booking software for martial arts clubs in Australia: memberships, class passes and gradings
How Australian martial arts clubs should handle bookings: choosing between memberships and class passes, running belt gradings as a bookable paid event, and keeping grading fees out of class passes.
A martial arts club has two quite different money flows. Classes are recurring revenue, usually monthly. Gradings are periodic, paid, and run on a date with a roll and a cap.
Most clubs handle the first reasonably well and the second on a paper list taped to the wall, which is the single most chaotic afternoon in the club's calendar.
1. Membership or class pass: pick deliberately
A monthly membership suits a club whose students train two or three times a week and think of themselves as members. It is predictable revenue and it is how most established clubs run.
A class pass suits students who cannot commit to fixed nights, and it is a better fit for adult beginners who are not yet sure. Many clubs run both, with the membership priced so that anyone training more than about twice a week is clearly better off on it.
2. The grading is a product. Set it up as one.
A belt grading has everything a bookable service has: a date, a duration, a fee, a capacity and an eligibility rule. Running it as one means the fee is collected before the day rather than in cash at the door, you know your numbers in advance, and nobody is chasing envelopes while trying to run a panel.
Eligibility stays with the instructor, as it should. The practical shape most clubs want is that a student books a grading only after their instructor has confirmed they are ready, which is a line of copy on the service rather than a piece of software.
3. Keep senior classes off the public timetable
An advanced or black belt class where attendance is by instructor approval should not appear as a bookable option to a beginner browsing your site. Set it to be booked by the club rather than publicly, so it stays on your calendar without becoming an invitation.
4. Never let a class pass buy a grading
This is worth stating on its own because it is easy to get wrong and expensive when you do. A ten class pass should cover classes. If a grading fee or a private lesson can be spent from it, you have discounted your highest value services by accident and you will not notice until the numbers are already wrong.
5. Ask about injuries, and get the acknowledgement
Prior injuries and medical conditions belong on the enrolment form, because an instructor needs to know before contact work starts rather than after. So does an acknowledgement that training involves physical contact and carries a risk of injury.
That acknowledgement is not a substitute for whatever waiver your insurer requires. It sits alongside it, and it means the conversation happened at enrolment.
6. What to use
- Purpose built martial arts software handles belt progression, attendance tracking towards grading eligibility, and curriculum in depth. If formal progression tracking drives your gradings, that is worth paying for.
- General booking tools handle a timetable but usually not a class with a real capacity, and none of them model a grading.
- BookAndGo: class timetable with capacity, recurring memberships, class passes restricted to the right services, gradings as bookable paid events, private lessons, custom intake, Australian data hosting and GST invoicing, flat AU$59 per month excluding GST.
Frequently asked
Should a martial arts club sell memberships or class passes?
Memberships suit students training two or three times a week and give predictable revenue, which is why most established clubs run them. Class passes suit adults who cannot commit to fixed nights or are not yet sure. Many clubs offer both, priced so anyone training more than roughly twice a week is clearly better off on the membership.
How should belt gradings be handled?
As a bookable paid service with a date, a duration, a fee and a capacity. That collects the fee before the day rather than as cash at the door, gives you numbers in advance, and replaces the list taped to the wall. Eligibility stays with the instructor and is best expressed as a line of copy on the service.
Can a class pass be used for a grading?
It should not be. A pass that can be spent on a grading fee or a private lesson discounts your highest value services by accident, and it is the kind of error you notice only after the numbers are already wrong. Restrict passes to class services explicitly.
What should a martial arts enrolment form ask?
Current rank including whether they are transferring from another club and in which style, prior injuries and medical conditions, an emergency contact, and an acknowledgement that training involves physical contact and carries a risk of injury. That acknowledgement sits alongside whatever waiver your insurer requires, not instead of it.